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Sources knowledgeable with Obama’s 2013 legislative agenda paint the picture of a man emboldened by his recent success at the polls, freed from the need for reelection and convinced he must take a more activist role in the shaping and passage of legislation.

First, the raising of tax rates on the wealthy is very much on the table. Obama campaigned on raising taxes “on the wealthiest Americans” and feels his reelection gave him a clear mandate to produce that.

If that is part of a Grand Bargain, fine. But he wants it either way. The Grand Bargain would change the Tax Code to raise rates on the wealthy coupled with “reforms” to Medicare and Social Security. The former will lead to howls from the right, and the latter to howls from the left.

Maybe the howls will cancel each other out, maybe not. The president intends to go forward anyway. He isn’t running for anything again.

Reforming Medicare and Social Security needs to be sold to the left wing of his party not as a way to reduce the debt — no balancing the books on the backs of the elderly — but as a way to ensure the solvency of those programs, especially Medicare, which is unsustainably expensive.

A Grand Bargain is not expected to be accomplished by the current, lame-duck 112th Congress. The kind of legislative wrangling necessary, plus the dotting of the i’s and the crossing of the t’s would take most, if not all, of 2013.

What about the fiscal cliff? Some kind of congressional prestidigitation, a down payment, perhaps, that will satisfy the credit agencies and investors, may have to be found before the tumble into the abyss. If Congress is a master of anything, it is a master of delay.

But Obama also wants at least one more historic act in his second term to add to his first-term creation of Obamacare: comprehensive immigration reform.

In 2008, he promised to make it a priority, but failed to deliver. The 2012 election, however, has revealed a new political math to Congress: Hey, Hispanic votes count!

According to sources, the White House feels it now has a win-win situation on immigration: The Republicans go along with what the White House wants (which would be a Democratic win) or face the prospect of alienating Hispanic voters even further and losing seats in 2014 (which would also be a Democratic win).

In the past few years, even noncomprehensive, relatively noncontroversial immigration measures have failed in Congress. When the DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act failed once again to clear Congress in 2010, Obama instituted his own mini-DREAM action in 2012 by deferring the deportation of people who came to the United States illegally before reaching the age of 16, who had high school diplomas or honorable discharges from the military and were not felons.

Readers' Comments (6)

But of course, as one of Obama's USUAL press agents, we wouldn't expect anything more than this trash from you, Roger.

The Nation's broke, and this idiot you worship proposed a misery and death plan he claimed would cost 800 billion........

Latest CBO estimate for ObamaCare is 2.7 TRILLION, and rising.........

We KNOW you like being lied to, and licking boots, Roger, but those of us who DON'T pray to the President's image every day actually CARE about turning our children over to the state to become wage slaves...............

Politically, comprehensive immigration reform will be a win/win for President Obama and the Democrats, but only by getting the job done will it be a win for our country.

Republicans may politically be in a lose/lose situation. If they cater to their racist and xenophobic base, they further alienate Hispanics. If they help pass comprehensive immigration reform, they risk losing their base by being viewed as traitors to the racist belief that only Caucasians matter. I can see many Republicans becoming double losers over immigration reform. They fight over many features of the reform package, further alienating Hispanics, but end up voting for the deal and yet not winning favor with Hispanic voters, due to the damage already done by them in the process.

I suspect the immigration reform fight will create at least one major division in the Republican Party among its presidential candidates. In 2015 and 2016 we won't have to suffer the same hateful, monolithic, xenophobic quacking from all Republican ducks on the debate stage, as we did in 2011 and 2012.

We do not need to give green cards to illegal individuals because over 1 million legal immigrants already enter the United States each year. And legal immigration must be cut. See the immigration system is not broken because over 1 million legal immigrants come here. But we must not grant amnesty to those illegals who are here. Those individuals must be deported now. And the politicians who support amnesty for illegals, must not be reelected. Let's replace all the politicians who want amnesty for illegal aliens.